The present invention relates to cyclically-operable valves. The invention is particularly applicable to cyclically-operable valves for controlling water distribution devices, such as water sprinklers, in accordance with the system described in my prior application Ser. No. 429,672, and is therefore described below with respect to such application.
My prior application Ser. No. 429,672 describes a water distribution system, e.g., for supplying water to sprinklers or other irrigating devices, including a plurality of cyclically-operable valves all randomly operated in an intermittent manner for a small portion of each cycle, e.g. from one-fifth to one-fiftieth of the complete cycle. Thus, by this random intermittent operation of each irrigating device, the overall load requirements for the system are substantially reduced, thereby enabling the system to utilize smaller-sized pipes, lowercapacity pumps, and the like. At the same time, this intermittent random operation permits water at relatively high pressure to be supplied at short intervals, and therefore provides, among other advantages, larger area coverage than if the same total quantity of water were applied continuously, such as in a conventional dripirrigation system.